


These Hands Strike Back

by deathbyspaceglam



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: (for now) - Freeform, Canon Compliant, Canon-atypical violence, Jewish Character, Language Barrier, M/M, Post-Canon, lbr this will probably turn into a canon divergence once The Last Jedi comes out, space memes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 11:49:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9819092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathbyspaceglam/pseuds/deathbyspaceglam
Summary: The First Order has occupied Sullust and the population is in unrest. Leia sends 18 Resistance soldiers to provide aid to protesters. Several of these soldiers punch a certain ginger-haired fascist.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for stormpilotweek. Prompt: Any AU.  
> (This isn’t technically an AU right now, but by the time The Last Jedi comes out, it probably will be.)  
> Based on true events.  
> All information on Sullust is from the Wookieepedia.

[A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...](http://deathbyspaceglam.tumblr.com/post/157420086618/opening-crawl-for-my-latest-fic)

_The First Order has lost their superweapon, Starkiller Base. The leaders of the cruel organization have regrouped elsewhere, but they need more resources to combat the heroic Resistance._  
_In an attempt to get more resources, the First Order has occupied the volcanic mining planet of Sullust. However, the planet not only houses factories and mines, but a population that was historically involved with the Rebel Alliance and is currently supporting the Resistance. There is heavy unrest in Sullust's population as the locals protest against the planet's new leaders._  
_General Leia Organa of the Resistance has received a message and call for help from one of her contacts on Sullust. She has sent 18 of her bravest soldiers to some of the largest protest sites to provide aid to the local rebellion…._

\---

The moment he stepped off the transport, Finn was drawn toward a crowd of Sullustans holding signs and chanting. He strained to hear what they were saying. He’d recently started to learn more languages, including Sullustese, but there was a huge difference between the lessons and actually hearing people speak the language. He thought he could make out the word “divide” somewhere in the protest chant, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

One Sullustan protester, seeing Finn, approached him and asked a question. Or at least, Finn thought they asked a question. He wasn’t entirely sure. He made a face of confusion and shook his head.

Luckily, a human in the crowd spotted Finn and rushed over. “Are you Resistance?” she asked, clearly noticing the all-black ensemble that General Organa had insisted he and the other Resistance fighters wear to hide their identities from the First Order.

“What? Oh, yeah. I’m Resistance,” said Finn, this time answering with complete conviction.

Relief spread across the Sullustan’s face. They commented in Sullustese. The human nodded. “You don’t understand Sullustese, do you?” she asked Finn. “My friend here said that they asked if you were Resistance and you said no.”

“I’ve been trying to learn,” said Finn in his defense. “Everyone else in the Resistance knows many languages. I only recently joined, so I’ve been trying to learn everything I can.”

“Well, if you need anyone to translate for you, look for this sign in the crowd,” she said, indicating her sign, which had an illustration of the Death Star and the words NEVER AGAIN, before leaving to join a group of humans carrying ALDERAANIANS AGAINST PLANET TERROR signs.

Finn moved through the crowd, handing out small water bottles to tired protesters. The language barrier quickly became meaningless- he didn’t need to understand protest chants to recognize when someone sounded tired, especially as he realized that his connection to the Force allowed him to sense the energy levels of the people around him.

As he turned a corner to enter a cave, however, Finn started to sense something else. On instinct, he pulled up the hood of his new jacket, slid a pair of dark goggles over his eyes, and covered his nose and mouth with the bandana he’d been wearing around his neck. He felt a stab of recognition- this feeling was one he’d often had as a stormtrooper, particularly when listening to speeches by...

He stepped between two protesters and saw a group of Alderaanian protesters gathered around… _him_.

General Hux. Being interviewed in front of a holorecorder and a live audience.

“To be honest,” the rightist was saying, “this is where we are. I’ve given speeches for ages and we’ll usually expect some protesters, they’ll do sprayable string or something like that. We’ve entered this new world where the leftist protesters-“

“Are you a neo-Imperial?” cut in a woman standing near the front of the crowd.

The neo-Imperial turned to face her. “No, I’m not a neo-Imperial,” he said in an exasperated tone, rolling his eyes like he’d heard that question many times.

Finn laughed silently. Of course Hux would say that around people who weren’t sympathetic to the First Order. Finn remembered every speech he’d heard when he was still a stormtrooper, every speech talking about how great the Empire had been and how weak the Republic was. How could this authoritarian live with himself, knowing how hypocritically he occupied worlds in the name of “making the galaxy great again" while claiming not to be a neo-Imperial?

“Why do neo-Imperials love you if you’re not a neo-Imperial?” asked a man from behind the holorecorder, calmly echoing Finn’s thoughts.

The galactic Jingoist’s eyes shifted as he continued to tell blatant “alternative facts". “Neo-Imperials don’t love me. They kind of hate me, actually.” Some people in the crowd muttered about the Knights of Ren. “Those people don’t like me.”

How could anyone like that totalitarian bastard? was Finn’s first thought.

“Are you like the hipster version of the neo-Imperial movement?” asked a man to the right of the holorecorder. The autocrat fascistly waved his question away.

“What’s your little Gungan?” asked a young woman from the middle of the crowd, reaching a hand forward to point to something on the blackshirt’s chest.

“What?” He looked down at his chest, pinching the small pin on the lapel of his uniform. The perfect opening. Finn moved through the crowd toward him, clenching a fist and pulling it back, ready to strike. “It’s, uh, Jar Jar. He’s become kind of a symbol-“

_Wham!_

At that moment, Finn’s fist made contact with Hux’s jaw.

The crowd gasped. A group of protesting Sullustans pushed their way closer to the action, some using holorecorders to capture images of the Nazi-in-space stumbling away and clutching his face. Amid the confusion, Finn slipped away, relishing the feeling of the fascist’s jaw against his knuckles.

As he fled the scene, Finn hid behind a rock pillar and stole a look back. As the dictator-wannabe continued to stumble, another figure clad in black was fast approaching. Without a break, this new figure punched Hux on the other side of his face and pushed him to the ground.

Finn stepped out from behind the pillar. He had acted purely on a whim. Who else had punched that despot? He needed to know. As the crowd of Sullustans and Alderaanians milled around taking pictures of the squirming fascist on the ground, Finn approached the other figure, pushing his dark goggles onto his forehead. The other Resistance soldier also pushed up their goggles, revealing thick eyebrows and warm, laugh-lined brown eyes.

Finn gasped. Those eyes, which had become home to him over the past several months, were eyes that he would know anywhere. Without hesitation, he ran right into Poe’s arms.

“Buddy, are you alright?” whispered Poe, careful not to let anyone hear his voice.

Finn nodded. “You?” he whispered.

The lower half of Poe’s face was hidden with a black bandana, but Finn could tell he was cracking one of his adorable grins. “As I’ll ever be,” he whispered. “Now come on, let’s get out of here before anyone sees us.”

They both put their goggles back on, Finn adjusting Poe’s to cover his eyebrows, and made their way back to the transport.

\---

Poe reclined on his bed, resting his head in Finn’s lap. Finn absentmindedly stroked his boyfriend’s hair, absorbed in his datapad.

“I need to learn how to punch better,” said Poe, stretching his aching fingers.

“Keep icing your hand,” said Finn, brushing a strand of hair behind Poe’s ear. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Poe wrapping the ice pack around his hand again. “In the First Order, we were put through all kinds of combat training. I could probably-“ He gasped, seeing a picture of himself punching Hux.

Poe jumped, sitting up against the pillows beside Finn. “What is it?” He looked over Finn’s shoulder at the datapad screen.

They studied the image. It was a highly polished rendering of Finn punching Hux, set against a background of stars, a squadron of X-wings visible in the corner. Across the top, it read MAKING CHANGE IN THE GALAXY OURS. The bottom was a purple band with a red Resistance starbird logo above the word RESISTANCE.

“Oh, that looks like one of Yolo Ziff’s ‘recruitment posters’,” Poe reminisced. “There was a joke between us that if I posed for a recruitment poster, we would get a lot more recruits. So Yolo made a poster of me ‘watching over the stars and skies’. It was meant as a prank, but it went viral and we got more recruits because of it.”

“Of course you did,” said Finn, playfully swatting Poe’s arm. “I imagine lots of people would join the Resistance if they knew its fighters were as handsome as you.”

“Aw, shuddup,” said Poe, the creases around his eyes and mouth deepening.

Finn scrolled down to the comments. “Oh, wow,” he marveled, reading the comments. “Everyone’s saying they’re the ones who punched him.”

“Good,” said Poe, leaning his head against Finn’s shoulder. “Knowing the First Order, they’ve probably put a bounty on both of our heads without knowing who we are. This is going to make it really hard for them to figure out it was us.”

“And it means people are paying attention to the First Order, which would keep anything like the Hosnian Cataclysm from happening again,” said Finn, opening a newsfeed.

BREAKING: SULLUST STRIKES BACK, read the headline. Finn read the article out loud. “Inspired by a demonstration from an anonymous Resistance fighter against First Order General Hux... the population of Sullust has mounted an armed resistance against the First Order?” Finn could hardly believe it. For him to have given an occupied population hope, even inspired them to fight back… He could hardly contain his joy. Carefully setting the datapad down on the bed, he squeezed Poe in a tight hug.

**Author's Note:**

> I also punched Hux, as well as [Richard Spencer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rh1dhur4aI).  
> The “recruitment poster” meme is also canon. I still can’t believe it.


End file.
